


When I Fall

by afteriwake



Series: A Thousand Suns [8]
Category: Bleach
Genre: F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-10-16
Updated: 2012-10-16
Packaged: 2017-11-16 10:45:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 785
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/538609
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/afteriwake/pseuds/afteriwake
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He only wanted to protect her, but it all came out wrong.</p>
            </blockquote>





	When I Fall

**Author's Note:**

> Written for **darkmagic_luvr** , who wanted Karin/Hitsugaya and the prompt "a moth to a flame."

He knew he shouldn’t have snapped and growled and been unpleasant. But she was a shinigami! Substitute like her brother, but she shouldn’t put herself in harm’s way. He pretended that he was angry that she made the decision to train as one and that she was inferior, but inside he was panicking. Her idiot brother putting himself in danger was one thing, but Karin?

And then, when he went to apologize and explain, she rebuffed him. Glared at him and spoke in abrupt sentences. It really made him angry, being treated with disrespect, and he was too angry to remember he’d treated _her_ with disrespect first. So he gave as cold as he got, and in the end they went their separate ways and did what they needed to do.

He’d never follow her on her patrol, in the first week they were all in Karakura Town together, but he’d follow her unique spiritual pressure using the communicator. He was still angry, but he wanted to make sure she was safe, that he could go in and save her if she needed it. But most nights she was in the company of Kurosaki, so it would have been a moot point anyway.

She caught him on the roof of the clinic one night, though. Yelled at him to get off her roof. And she had a point, because it was _her_ roof and not some random rooftop in the city, but before he could get the chance to explain that he was there to talk to her brother and not him, she shoved him, and then it was on. 

She could punch. Arisawa had taught her well, she really had. He could tell that there would be a bruise in the morning, under his left eye. Of course he hadn’t fought back, because she wasn’t an enemy, she was _Karin_ , Kurosaki’s tough, spunky younger sister who had only made one stupid decision that he knew of, and that was to become a shinigami. Didn’t she realize how dangerous it was? But with the punch he let his temper flare, hurled insults at her until she clamped a hand over his mouth and hissed at him to shut the hell up.

That got his attention, and then he felt it. He’d been in the heat of the moment but he felt what she felt, the presence of a Hollow. An Arrancar, perhaps, judging from its strength, but not a former Espada or anything close to that level. She looked at him, then lowered her hand, told him to get over things and concentrate on taking the Hollow down.

When they went to work, he found an easy pattern with her. It _was_ an Arrancar, but not one who resembled a human. It was a massive Hollow, like what Kurosaki’s father said Grand Fischer had turned into. It took them both to take it down, and when they were done they rested on the roof of her home. And then she spoke to him, and he listened.

She told him she had become a shinigami because her sister had been attacked by a Hollow and her brother had had no clue what was going on. She saw the Hollow, remembered things she had seen done, and managed to save her family. And it was that day she knew that Karakura Town needed as much help as it could get, so she went to Urahara, made him remember what she had said six months prior, and he trained her.

He had more respect for her after that, and they were civil to each other. They fought well together, and he took to joining her on her patrols. They would talk, never getting so deep in conversation that they ignored dangers, but he began seeing her as more than Kurosaki’s annoying little sister. He’d even go so far to call her a friend, after a few weeks of them spending time together.

When he realized that his thoughts had become more than friendly, that he was actually developing a crush, he didn’t know what to do. Falling in love with a human, even one who was a substitute shinigami, was not a good idea. And he couldn’t let anyone know, because he thought if they knew he’d be sent back to Soul Society and the mission, as well as his developing relationship with Karin, would be scattered to ash.

So he kept it to himself, kept it close, and inched closer to her like a moth to a flame, knowing that eventually he would move too close and it would bring about his downfall. But for now, she enticed him, and he couldn’t bring himself to stay away.


End file.
